Your online guide to Chanel, Oakley, and Rayban sunglasses

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People buy sunglasses for a variety of reasons so here's your online guide to sunglasses, tips for buying the right pair and how to look after them.

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Sunglasses are a really interesting product. Very small, and yet so important to the overall look of a person. People buy sunglasses for a variety of reasons. For instance, some people like to wear sunglasses to look good. Perhaps this is why you’ll see many celebrities wearing sunglasses at night when they come out of nightclubs. They can be a true fashion accoutrement as well as having other uses.

Talking of celebrities, you’ll often see band members wearing sunglasses on stage. Perhaps this is to look cool, but if you’ve ever been on stage performing you’ll know that there are some extremely bright lights shining in your direction. This is another use for sunglasses, as a way of protecting your eyes from glare, and what you are aiming for is to find sunglasses with lenses dark enough to protect you from that glare whilst also light enough to enable you to see properly.

The other main use of sunglasses is for protection against ultra-violet rays, which come in two types – UV-A radiation and UV-B radiation. Both of these can cause massive damage to the internal workings of your eyes, and you need to have at least 99%, but preferably 100% protection against UV rays. Don’t accept the word of the manufacturer either. A sticker from them saying that the sunglasses offer 100% UV protection is not enough. What you want and need is for there to be a USA, British or European standards kite mark on the paperwork for the glasses to prove that they meet the right standards.

Some useful tips for looking after your sunglasses are firstly to wear your sunglasses on a chain or a cord around your neck, which avoids carelessly leaving them behind. This is very useful also when you spend a lot of time in and out of the sun, like delivery drivers do, and so have to be constantly taking your sunglasses on and off. When you remove them from your face, do it carefully with two hands to stop the frame being curved and bent. Don’t put them on the top of your head as that can stretch the frame. Finally, leaving them on your car’s dashboard could “melt” the sunglasses.

When you are not wearing your sunglasses, put them in a case so that they avoid being scratched and are less likely to accidentally break, say from someone sitting on them. Don’t put them in your pocket or purse with keys or a comb as they could easily be scratched. Should leave them outside your case, put them on folded temples with an upward-facing frame.

Keep your sunglasses clean and free from lint using a soft cloth. Use a lens cleaner to get rid of smudges.